Mark Hopkins Quotes

Everywhere The Tendency Has Been To Separate Religion From Morality, To Set Them In Opposition Even. But A Religion Without Morality Is A Superstition And A Curse; And Anything Like An Adequate And Complete Morality Without Religion Is Impossible. The Only Salvation For Man Is In The Union Of The Two As Christianity Unites Them.

Faith, Then, Generically, Is Confidence In A Personal Being. Specifically, Religious Faith Is Confidence In God, In Every Respect And Office In Which He Reveals Himself. As That Love Of Which God Is The Object Is Religious Love, So That Confidence In Him As A Father, A Moral Governor, A Redeemer, A Sanctifier, In All The Modes Of His Manifestation, By Which We Believe Whatever He Says Because He Says It, And Commit Ourselves And All Our Interests Cheerfully And Entirely Into His Hands, Is Religious Faith.

Nothing But The Cross Of Christ Can So Startle The Spiritual Nature From Its Torpor, As To Make It An Effectual Counterpoise To The Debasing And Sensual Tendencies Of The Race. Favored By Temperament And Education, Individuals May Measurably Escape; But If The Race Is To Triumph In The Conflict Between The Flesh And The Spirit, Between The Lower Propensities And The Higher Nature, They Must, As Constantine Is Said To Have Done, See The Cross, And On It The Motto, "in Hoc Signo Vinces." By This Sign We Conquer.

Christianity Alone Inspires And Guides Progress; For The Progress Of Man Is Movement Toward God. And Movement Toward God Wili Ensure A Gradual Unfolding Of All That Exalts And Adorns Man.

Christianity Excludes Malignity, Subdues Selfishness, Regulates The Passions, Subordinates The Appetites, Quickens The Intellect, Exalts The Affections. It Promotes Industry, Honesty, Truth, Purity, Kindness. It Humbles The Proud, Exalts The Lowly, Upholds Law, Favors Liberty, Is Essential To It, And Would Unite Men In One Great Brotherhood. It Is The Breath Of Life To Social And Civil Well-being Here, And Spreads The Azure Of That Heaven Into Whose Unfathomed Depths The Eye If Faith Loves To Look.

No, There Is Nothing On The Face Of The Earth That Can, For A Moment, Bear A Comparison With Christianity As A Religion For Man. Upon This The Hope Of The Race Hangs. From The Very First, It Took Its Position, As The Pillar Of Fire, To Lead The Race Onward. The Intelligence And Power Of The Race Are With Those Who Have Embraced It; And Now, If This, Instead Of Proving Indeed A Pillar Of Fire From God, Should Be Found But A Delusive Meteor, Then Nothing Will Be Left To The Race But To Go Back To A Darkness That May Be Felt, And To A Worse Than Egyptian Bondage.

But For Us There Are Moments, O, How Solemn, When Destiny Trembles In The Balance And The Preponderance Of Either Scale Is By Our Own Choice.

The Moral Government Of God Is A Movement In A Line Onwards Towards Some Grand Consummation, In Which The Principles, Indeed, Are Ever The Same, But The Developments Are Always New - In Which, Therefore, No Experience Of The Past Can Indicate With Certainty What New Openings Of Truth, What Hew Manifestations Of Goodness, What New Phases Of The Moral Heaven May Appear.

Remove From The History Of The Past All Those Actions Which Have Either Sprung Directly From The Religious Nature Of Man, Or Been Modified By It, And You Have The History Of Another World And Of Another Race.

In Christ We See The Strength Of Achievement, And The Strength Of Endurance. He Moved With A Calm Majesty, Like The Sun. The Bloody Sweat, And The Crown Of Thorns, And The Cross, Were Full In His Eyes; But He Was Obedient Unto Death. In His Perfect Self-sacrifice We See The Perfection Of Strength; In The Love That Prompted It We See The Perfection Of Beauty. This Combination Of Self-sacrifice And Love Must Be Commenced In Every Christian; And When It Shall Be In Its Spirit Complete In Him, Then Will He Also Be Perfect In Strength And Beauty.

Let The Church Come To God In The Strength Of A Perfect Weakness, In The Power Of A Felt Helplessness And A Child-like Confidence, And Then, Either She Has No Strength, And Has No Right To Be, Or She Has A Strength That Is Infinite. Then And Thus, Will She Stretch Out The Rod Over The Seas Of Difficulty That Lie Before Her, And The Waters Shall Divide, And She Shall Pass Through, And Sing The Song Of Deliverance.

We Say Then, That Christianity Is Adapted To The Intellect, Because Its Spirit Coincides With That Of True Philosophy; Because It Removes The Incubus Of Sensuality And Low Vice; Because Of The Place It Gives To Truth; Because It Demands Free Inquiry; Because Its Mighty Truths And Systems Are Brought Before The Mind In The Same Way As The Truths And Systems Of Nature; Because It Solves Higher Problems Than Nature Can; And Because It Is So Communicated As To Be Adapted To Every Mind.